In his latest book, "The New Case for Gold," fund manager, geopolitical analyst, and financial letter writer James G. Rickards may have summarized the international gold price suppression scheme better than anyone, including GATA itself.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Justice Department and the country's derivatives regulator said on Monday they had filed civil and criminal charges against three European banks, which paid $46.6 million to settle the cases, and eight individuals for alleged manipulation in U.S. futures and commodities markets.

The TF Metals Report today wonders what excuses will be made by deniers of monetary metals market manipulation now that three investment banks -- Deutsche Bank, UBS, and HSBC -- have been fined millions of dollars by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for manipulating the futures markets in the monetary metals.

Central banks and governments that are secretly trading futures contracts in the United States on CME Group exchanges qualify for discounts ranging from 7 percent for two-year U.S. Treasury futures to 15 percent for gold and silver futures to 60 percent for Eurodollar futures.